We don’t like to use the word “crippled” today — because we prefer to gloss over that historic, condemning, label with “disabled” — but the Government Accountability Office recently reported that schools are now restraining and punishing crippled children just because they are disabled.
In Kabul, Afghanistan, women are being newly incarcerated in their marriages even as the USA tries to free the country.
Saartjie Baartman was considered a South African sexual freak by Caucasian culture. In 1810, when she was 20, she was convinced to leave her homeland for fame in England. Her traditional Khoikhoi body type was considered freakish in Western Culture and she was put on sexual display. Her bare breasts and genitals were open for the gaping. She was given the nickname “Hottentot Venus” for her presumptive beauty, though in Khoikhoi, “hottentot” means “stutterer.” Saartjie was dead at 25 and her genitals and brain were pickled for continued, public, display.
Jamie Grace wrote this article.
On Saturday the 28th of February at the Institute of Education in London, the UK consensus on a fight-back against intrusions into privacy finally gets going with the inaugural Convention on Modern Liberty.
Continue reading → Modern Liberty and Sectarian UK ID Card Schemes
Jamie Grace wrote this article.
I’d like to put forward the idea that by using surveillance and monitoring in our society as we progress through the Information Age we are creating new ‘information minorities’ – not those who are the least monitored and overwatched, those who are subject to the most surveillance and scrutiny, for whatever reason: state security, criminal justice, politics or ‘research.’
Yesterday’s rather boring Macworld Expo did have one good glimmer of freedom: iTunes will no longer protect its music with the awful DRM that I hate. Digital Rights Management was a golden goose egg that arrived too late and under-cooked. I was pleased with the announcement that iTunes music would finally belong to those that bought it because that’s the way it was always supposed to be: Only the container changed. When I jumped into the iTunes store to upgrade my 4,000 song strong iTunes-purchased library, I was met with this offer to upgrade: $270.84USD for 1,304 total songs. I clicked that “BUY” button and the download parade began. Almost.
Have you ever had someone steal your idea and use it in your stead?
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